Look What I’ve Gotten Myself Into

I’ve been having way too much fun on the internet. I’ve been finding so many great tutorials and ideas, and with Christmas right around the bend, I’ve been thinking about gifts. And the more I think about gifts, the more I’ve been thinking it would be really fun to do a homemade Christmas this year. I always tell myself I’ll work on Christmas all year long, but then I don’t do anything. As soon as Halloween is over, I go into a Christmas panic, knowing all too well how quickly that last time flies.

I sat down with my husband the other evening to talk to him about some of the ideas I had, things I could make for different people. I love bouncing ideas off my husband. He has great taste, and he’s way better than me at making decisions. After I showed him several options I had in mind for many of the people on our Christmas list, we narrowed things down to actual decisions of who would receive what. With the decisions out of the way, I could get started making.

I thought I was doing pretty well. I bought fabric and got one project out of the way. When my husband asked me what I was making next, I told him I would have to go pick up supplies for the next project. See, I thought I would take a safe approach, buying things I needed for one project, finishing that project, and then purchasing for the next one. That way, if we’re getting too close to Christmas and I just don’t have time, I can go buy something instead of making the gift I had planned.

My ever-supportive husband had a different idea. He thought my “safe approach” would make it too easy for me to back out. He wanted to help motivate me. So he said I needed to make a supply list. For how many of the projects? All of them. I made the list, the very, very long list. We left in the late afternoon to hit the stores. Considering the time, I figured we could make a good start on the list, and I’d at least have supplies for a few of the projects. We started at the fabric store.

And we stayed at the fabric store.

I made decision after decision after decision.

My daughters ran amok.

I think we gave everyone a headache, including ourselves.

It became quite clear that we weren’t leaving that store until I had fabric and most of the notions for all the projects on my list.

My daughters bickered.

I made some more decisions.

I got nervous every time we picked up fabric that cost more than $6 a yard.

My daughters got fussy.

I broke out the snacks.

We soldiered on. We kept that cutting counter quite busy.

After three grueling hours in a fabric store, we came away with these fabrics and some other supplies for me to make gifts. Then we went to Costco for dinner.

I had used a coupon which helped quite a bit with the supplies, but I still had sticker shock from the whole bill. What had we done? I had never spent that much in one trip to the fabric store. I thought my husband surely was feeling the same way, but it turns out, he was thinking more rationally. He told me to take the total price and divide it by the number of projects for which I had all the supplies. I did, and it turned out to be less than $10. He told me to take the total price and divide it by the number of people to whom we will be giving the projects. It still turned out less than $10 per person. Maybe we will save money this Christmas after all.

Now I just have to deal with the matter of getting it all done in time and trying not to become a basket case in the process. I guess you could say I’ve got my work cut out for me (pun intended). I’m nervous and excited. This will be some really good sewing practice for me since most of the projects are sewn. What a great opportunity to get plenty of practice! Still, I think I might be in over my head. Wish me luck! I might have to wait until after Christmas to blog about it all, since they are gifts.

Are you working on anything for Christmas? Is this a big Christmas or a small Christmas for you this year? What do you do to make gifts feel more personal, more special?